The Story of Will Solace
by pritcharda
Summary: A collection of chapters representing various points in Will Solace's life
1. A Break From War Plans

It was one of those beautiful end of summer days; you know that it can't last, and winters and wars will come, but it is so beautiful you don't care. Regular camp had ended a few days ago, and only a few year rounders like Jake and I were left. You would never have guessed that a few weeks before, camp had almost been overrun by monsters in a huge battle - which my half brother had died in. By now almost everyone was out of the infirmary, so I had plenty of free time.

Jake and I paid a Hermes kid a couple of drachmas for a "liberated" 6 pack of Coke, then walked around the canoe lake to our favorite picnic spot. We walked in silence most of the way, but once we got there, we began to talk.

For the first few minutes we talked about small things, like cabin inspection and capture the flag. But then I said quietly, "You know, now that Lee is ... gone ... I'm actually second in command."

"Welcome to my world, bro," replied Jake who was second in command of Hephaestus cabin. " Want to start signing autographs?"

"Be serious for a moment here, Jake. What if, gods forbid, Michael or Beckendorf got hurt or died? You and I might end up as head counsellors."

"Nah, man, Beck'll never die. And Michael's got a cabin full of healers behind him."

 _Didn't help Lee,_ I thought, but kept it to myself. Jake was doing his best to stay positive, and I wasn't going to stop him.

"Still, even head counselor wouldn't be as bad as what Percy's got coming, all that prophecy crap."

Jake and I, like everyone, had heard rumors and not so rumors about Percy's role in the Great Prophecy - although none of the rumors agreed with each other.

"Percy has Annabeth, though." I said. That was another rumor - this time a lot more credible. "Even if they won't admit it, they're like soul mates. If we're head counsellors, we'd have nobody."

Jake shook his head like _Will, you are so dumb sometimes._ "We'd have each other. Plus heads get all the chicks."

An uncomfortable silence stretched between us. There was something I had been thinking about telling Jake. I wasn't sure, but he was my oldest friend and really trustworthy. Still, I had this feeling like saying it would make it permanent.

Suddenly the sun, which had been hiding behind a cloud, broke out into the open. I felt warm and happy, like I always did in the sun. It's kind of cheesy, but I felt like it was an encouraging message from my dad, Apollo. Since he's the sun god, he can do that kind of thing.

I guess because of my dad's approval, or maybe ... well, I don't know what. But I said to Jake, quietly, "Jake, I'm gay."

He had been just about to say something, but instead he blurted, "Me too!"

And there was something funny about it, so I burst out laughing, and then Jake did too, and I had this weird feeling in my stomach; sort of the opposite of healing someone, good energy being added, not subtracted.

So we laughed, and the warm feeling in my stomach faded, and we sat there in happy silence, until Jake's stomach growled. I jumped up in mock surprise and exclaimed "Where's the hellhound?" Jake punched me in the arm and said "Shut up, Solace!"

Then we walked back to camp to make preparations for the coming war.


	2. Crushes and Near Death

**I do not own Percy Jackson. Dang-nabbit!**

It was a few days before winter break, and I was excited. Now that the gods were recognizing all their children, there were way more demigods. There were only about 35 campers at the end of the war, but more kept coming. There would be so many new faces, and old faces coming back for Christmas break, that Camp Half-Blood would be packed. And with so many demigods, the capture-the-flag games were _excellent_.

I was at the archery range, with my two newest half-siblings. They both had come to camp since the beginning of November, and were behind the rest of the cabin in archery. Of course, everyone in our cabin excels at archery, but I had to teach them the basics first.

Robin and Miles - those were their names - had each fired two rounds of five arrows and I was correcting them on technique, when one of the sons of Hermes ran up. I think it was Jonas. Anyway, he stopped for a second and caught his breath, before saying the four most chilling words I had ever heard, "Jake's hurt. It's bad."

"Where?" As head counselor of Apollo cabin and the camp's best medic, I got into this intense zone when I needed to save people, totally focused, but aware of everything. Jonas pointed towards the edge of the woods. I took off, but stopped quickly, realizing something. Turning back, I called to the three campers behind me, "Robin - get a stretcher! Miles - med kit! Jonas - come help me find him! If he's hurt bad, we have to be as fast as we can! Go!" Then I sprinted towards the woods again, with Jonas following.

As it turned out, I had no problem finding Jake. He was right at the edge of the woods, lying crumpled in the middle of a circle of scorched dirt. Some of the grass on the edges smouldered slightly. Jake was covered in blood, and his limbs were bent at odd angles, but he was definitely alive, because he was moaning in pain. I knelt next to him, and fished a square of ambrosia out of my pocket. I unwrapped it, while talking in my most comforting voice to Jake. "Hey, Jake, I'm here now. You're safe. Nothing will hurt you while I'm here. Just eat this ambrosia, then you can sleep." His eyes focused on me, but they were glazed with pain. I carefully opened his jaw and saw he had several teeth chipped or gone. There was no way he could chew the ambrosia. Luckily, Miles had arrived with the med kit. I took out some nectar, and poured it down Jake's throat. He coughed and swallowed, then screamed in pain as I tried to move his arm onto the stretcher. I took out two more vials of liquid from the kit - mortal painkillers and something to knock him out for a few minutes while we moved him. I gave them to Jake and waited for him to fall unconscious. Once he did, we moved him onto the stretcher and carried him to the infirmary.

The next few hours were exhausting. I treated Jake as best I could, but he alternately screamed and groaned. His cabin came to see him but we shooed them away. Eventually, I got him all cleaned up and his bones set. He had dislocated his shoulder; broken 4 ribs, his collarbone, and his wrist; and shattered his ankle. He also had a concussion, a bunch of broken teeth, and was covered in scrapes, cuts, and bruises. All in all, he was in very bad shape, but he would live. After I had done what I could do, my second in command, Kayla. came in and took over from me for a while. I slumped in a chair and promptly fell asleep.

Of course, my dreams were terrible. It started back at my mother's house, somewhere I hadn't been since I was eleven. My mom stood in the doorway, looking out. She spoke, in a horrible woman's voice that sounded ancient and malicious, but sleepy: "Goodbye, Will, I love you! Write me letters!" Those were the last words my mother said to me, and I hated the mocking tone, like the speaker was saying how foolish I was.

"Poor boy, Will! This is only the beginning. You have a part to play in these games too. Your destiny is not done yet. All your friends will be dying around you, and nothing you can do!" She said this all with my mother's smile.

I heard another voice, weak. I looked around and saw my older brother, Lee Fletcher, smashed by a giant's club. "Help me, Will," he said.

Then his face melted into Michael's, who said the same thing. Then Austin, Kayla, Miles, Robin, and my other half-siblings. They changed into Beckendorf, Silena, Connor, Travis, Cecil, Lou Ellen, Percy, Annabeth, all my friends at camp. Finally, they turned into Jake as he had seen him injured, who pleaded, "Help me, Will! Save me, Will, please, save me!"

"You can't save them, Will," said Nico di Angelo behind his shoulder. "Some deaths should not be prevented."

I ran at Nico, angry, but Nico pulled me close and said _I love you_. My heart caught in my throat and I was about to say something when I felt something warm in my chest. I looked down, and saw Nico's sword pull out of the fatal wound it had made. I felt like I was on fire and woke up screaming.

Kayla looked at me, sitting bolt upright in my chair and screaming my head off. She rushed over and calmed me down, then after a few minutes, said, "Some nightmare, huh?" I nodded. "Well," she continued, "it's been about two hours you've been asleep. Hephaestus cabin came by, and a bunch more campers, but I said they had to let him sleep. He hasn't woken up yet but he should soon. Do you want to take a shift?"

I said yes, grateful for something to take my mind off my dream. I sat down on a stool beside Jake's bed, and looked down at him, seeing him as my friend for the first time today. The sight of his bruised, lacerated face made me feel like crying. I rarely cried, because it is unprofessional, but no one was around and Jake was my best friend. I let the silent tears flow until Jake woke up.

"Hey, my face is all wet," complained Jake. "And-oww, I hurt!"

"Sorry, dude, but you've got a bunch of casts on. You look like you've been through a meat grinder, and that's _after_ all my nectar and ambrosia and hymns to Apollo. I'm allowed to shed a few tears after that."

"What happened? How bad?"

I told him about how we found him, and his injuries. "Oh, and you look ugly as crap." I added. "No one's ever gonna date you."

"If they're not dating me, you'll never have a chance," he replied. "On second thought, one of those flesh-eating ghouls might fall for you. He'd be way out of your league, though." Jake and I had come out to each other over a year ago.

"You would totally date a ghoul, as long as his name was Mitchell!" I shot back, and since Jace blushed furiously and stammered 'W-w-we…' I knew I had guessed right. "Jake and Mitchell, sittin' in a tree," I began in a singsong voice, but he interrupted me: "If I were not in a body cast, your nose would be broken and gushing blood right now," he said in a cool, controlled tone that was kind of scary. "Anyway, at least I'm not always daydreaming and making lovey eyes. Who are those for, anyway?"

For a while I had had a crush on Pollux in Dionysus's cabin, but I got over that a while ago. I decided to be classy; I replied "Your mom."

But Jake said, " No, seriously dude," and I was forced to think about it. Maybe it was my dream, but I blurted out, "Nico di Angelo," and sat back in my chair.

Immediately I questioned my choice. Sure Nico was handsome and had been a hero in the war, but he was so dark. He spent less than half his time at camp, preferring to train with the dead, and once I had seen him conversing with a skeleton behind the Hades cabin. Still, I sympathized with the kid, he'd had a hard time, and - Oh gods, _did I like him?_

All of a sudden, a conch horn blew. I was grateful that it distracted me from my thoughts, but I vowed to come back to them. The horn blew again and again, three times, the symbol for a counselor's meeting. Since Jake was head counselor for Hephaestus, I considered bringing him along, but instead I said, "I'll be back soon to tell you what happens," and ran off towards the Big House.

Annabeth Chase is never someone you want to see angry, but today she was in- _sane_! She was wearing full battle armor, and her eyes were the color of dark tornado clouds. She looked ready to murder someone.

"Has anyone seen Percy?" she yelled. "He said he wasn't doing anything today, but I can't find him anywhere. Daedalus's magic shield can't find him either! No one in camp has seen him, I say we mount a search."

"Slow down, Annabeth," said Chiron, "and think this out."

The next few hours were a mess. There was a lot of screaming, crying and both at the same time from Annabeth. I told them about Jake, we agreed to hold another meeting tomorrow so we could hear what happened. We agreed to send out some searchers for Percy, and a few other things. Nico was there, which made me nervous and brought up some questions I needed to figure out. The meeting was so long, we were late for dinner, and by the time I collapsed on my bunk at 12:00, after tending to Jake, I was absolutely exhausted. I had a bunch of questions buzzing around in my head, but no answers at all, except a vague feeling like this was the beginning of something big. For once, sleep came easily, and I had no dreams.


End file.
